Building a community restaurant in China

Ever wonder how a community tourism project becomes a Planeterra partner? Here is a quick photo blog to show you how the Jia Community Restaurant went from just an idea, to a restaurant with a steady stream of travellers in rural China.

Meet Tomato. This young woman in the striped shirt had a dream to build a restaurant in her community of Liandaowan, China. She wanted this restaurant to be a gathering place for women and children to learn, enjoy life and building a stronger sense of community. Tomato had been engaged with trainings with a local nonprofit, the Rural Women Development Foundation (RWDF), for some time, and looked to them for partnership to help make her dream come true.

This small plot of land is where Tomato dreamed of building her cafe. Through various connections, Planeterra was introduced to Tomato and the Rural Women's Development Foundation. They told us about their vision to create the community space that would allow them to create jobs for women. They were in need of funding to build the restaurant, as well as a link to a customer base to make this business viable.

Planeterra had been searching for a few years for a community partner in China. RWDF's proposal was timely and meaningful. Even better, the village of Liandaowan is just a ferry ride from tourist hub, Yangshuo. This meant it could be possible to build a strong customer base for the restaurant through the G Adventures traveller market. Planeterra and G Adventures approved this program, and construction began.

Planeterra's first field visit to China in late 2017 showed the skeleton of a large new building. As the community continued to progress on construction, Planeterra was working with G Adventures to include this new community experience and local lunch into their 2019 itineraries.

Many community members helped out with the construction of the restaurant. While Planeterra often provides grants for construction projects, many times our project partners chip in with a little "sweat equity" by volunteering their own labour. This gives an extra level to our partnerships and investment from the larger community.

By mid 2018 the restaurant construction had been completed and community members began their trainings in food service and hospitality. The restaurant was named 'Jia Community Restaurant', referencing the land that the food comes from.

The dining room now seats about 30 people while the kitchen serves up traditional Chinese dishes. They use vegetables from the local farms and use healthy ingredients. This dining space has already become a local hangout, as it is the first restaurant in the village!

One of the most important parts of this new project is the building's second floor. This area above the restaurant features a large open space for children to come and learn, or for various community activities. Even in the first few months since opening this space has already been used frequently for trainings through RWDF, and even weekly movie nights for children.

The launching ceremony in 2018 brought out over one hundred people to celebrate the exciting new project. The ceremony included a cooking contest amongst the women. Some of the winning dishes are now featured in the restaurant for travellers to sample!

Planeterra couldn't be more excited to see travellers start visiting this meaningful program in 2019. Many of G Adventures tours through Yangshuo will now feature this very local, very special experience. We can't wait to see the impact it will have over the coming years.